Rahul Dravid, ‘The Wall’of Indian cricket, received one of the highest honours from the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday. The former Indian skipper has been inducted into the prestigious ICC Hall of Fame.
Dravid became the fifth Indian cricketer after Bishan Singh Bedi, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Anil Kumble to feature in the list. Apart from the former Indian legendary batsman, former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting and English batting great Claire Taylor has also been included in the same.
With 13,288 runs in 164 Test matches, Dravid is fourth on the list of all-time highest run getters in the red-ball format of the game behind only Sachin Tendulkar, Ponting and Jacques Kallis. He is also placed 9th on the overall run-scorers chart in ODIs with 10,889 runs in 344 games.
After getting featured in honourary Hall of Fame, Dravid expressed his gratitude towards ICC in a video message. He said,
“It’s a great honour and privilege to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. I’m thankful to the ICC for giving me this honour. It’s a privilege to be in a group of people I have looked up to and I have admired as a young man growing up in my journey as a cricketer. I love to be able to thank so many people who have made it possible for me to have a career in this sport and to fulfill my dreams.”
Here's the video:
Dravid is currently serving as the coach of India A team which is on a tour of England. Since he couldn’t make it in person when his name was announced, he took to the digital medium to convey his message.
Considered as one of the greatest batsmen played for India, Dravid has also played one T20I which marked the last game of his career. He was also the Cricketer of the Year in 2004 alongside being named the best Test cricketer for the same year.